What? Now?
by NothingImpossible
Summary: A mistaken lip-reading of a gifset on tumblr lead to this story. Happy, fluffy, Captain Swan adventure some time after the Underworld arc. No spoilers.
**A/N:** Thanks to a beautiful gifset by killiansbutt and my first-glance lip reading, this sort of happened. Fluff! Actual fluff!

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"I cannot believe we have to deal with _goblins_!" Emma cried, swinging David's sword in a half-arc around her head. She caught at least two of the beasts with the side of the large blade, slamming them into the wall, but they were up and running at her again in a few seconds, ignoring the sizzled flesh the metal left on their dark green skin.

"Why does that surprise you, love?" Killian called from somewhere behind her, his own sword clanging against one of the smaller creature's stone dagger as he ducked under the beast that had just taken a flying leap toward his head. The knives they wielded were a far cry from the finely-honed instruments she and Killian used, but the long gash along his bicep - through leather jacket, shirt, and flesh - was testament to their effectiveness. _Just watch the damn things be poisoned or something_ , she briefly worried before turning back to the fray.

"It shouldn't at this point," she muttered as she dodged another couple of goblins racing toward her, hearing them smack into the walls of the mines with a resounding crunch. It wouldn't stop them, she knew. They'd be on their feet in no time. The only way was to scare them off with the iron in their swords. Everything else seemed to roll off them like water.

"What was that?" he asked loudly. He sounded a bit out of breath, they both were, but the goblins showed no sign of slowing as more crept out from hiding places behind rocks and crags in the underground tunnel system.

"Nothing, dear," she replied. Enough with this, the sword was _heavy_ and she couldn't afford to be worn out so soon. She dropped it and raised her hands, concentrating on the magic that she could now pull up far more effortlessly than just weeks ago. She focused on the row of dwarf axes that stood neatly against the wall at the end of the tunnel. With a whisper of will, she called them toward her and soon they were flying in the air aimed at the beasts around her. Three axes buried themselves immediately into three separate goblins, their screams of pain as the cold iron hit their flesh sending goosebumps up her back. The three creatures fell to the ground and then _melted_ into the gravelly earth. The other axes crashed against the rock walls and fell harmlessly to the ground.

But four goblins still surrounded her, their short daggers waving dangerously close as they gnashed their sharpened teeth at her. Killian had turned a corner in the tunnel system, she could only hear his grunts as he fought with everything he had, his blade and hook a dangerous combination against the mythical beasts. Well, not really mythical anymore, she figured.

"Killian?" she called out as they stepped closer. "You doing okay?"

A pause, the goblins approaching ever nearer, and she stepped back until her foot hit the wall of the tunnel.

"Aye," he returned, his voice sounding strained even in that one syllable. "You?"

"Just great," she answered. "But I think I'd prefer to be somewhere else, wouldn't you?" She raised her hands again, calling the axes back up into the air, where they danced in a half circle around her. The goblins glanced at the iron picks nervously, halting their forward motion, but they didn't back away as she'd hoped. She really didn't want to hear the sound of their screams again. Not this close anyway, the echoes of their dying cries from where Killian was fighting was bad enough.

"I'm with you there," she heard, along with another clang of metal on stone, and then another shriek. How many was that already? Twenty? Surely they had to stop coming from wherever the hell it was they came from at some point. Right?

"Maybe we do need that vacation Mom's always telling us to take," she said as she concentrated on keeping the axes moving back and forth in front of her. The goblins didn't dare approach, but they showed no signs of giving up either.

"How about a honeymoon?" he said from somewhere a little bit closer than before.

Wait, what did he just say?

"What?" she asked sharply, turning toward his voice. The dancing axes nearly fell to the floor in her shock, but she quickly recovered them, glancing quickly back to the horrible goblins. Another two had joined. Great.

"Marry me, Emma," he said, and she could just make out his leg and back from around the corner where he fought. He backed up a bit more, and she could fully appreciate just how deadly he was with his weapons, and just how badly he had faked that fight back at Lake Nostos lifetimes ago. He used both blade and hook effectively together, his brow furrowed in concentration as he anticipated the attackers movements and swung forward, not just to dodge but to attack. It was almost a dance, graceful and elegant, as he swung and lunged and parried easily.

She'd never tire of watching him fight like that, regardless of how sick and tired she was of all the… beings that seemed determined to interrupt their happiness.

He was fully on the offense, and though he slowly moved closer to her, he was in no way backing away. He quite clearly had full control over the seven - seven? wow - goblins that attacked him. It was obvious, even with her rudimentary fighting ability, that he was maneuvering them, bringing them to her so they could take them down together.

She shook her head quickly and forced herself to focus on the goblin threat right in front of her, and the words that had just slipped so effortlessly from his lips.

"What? Now? You're doing this _now_?" She couldn't believe he was choosing the middle of a damn _goblin fight_ to propose.

He shrugged, no simple task when both his arms were fully engaged in the fight around him.

"Why not? I love you, you love me, we've already decided ages ago to have a future together." He paused to knock a goblin into the wall, his blade slicing sizzling tracks in its flesh. "You brought me back from the dead, Emma. If that's not a good enough reason, I don't know what is." He ducked quickly under another launched goblin just as he managed to slice three of the five legs off the one closest to him, which went down in a screaming, bubbling puddle.

"You sure picked a hell of a time to ask though," she said, more sharply than she intended. She could feel her concentration slipping as she watched him dodge another two attacks, and she tried to force herself to _focus_.

"It's as good a time as any. At least we're both alive and not tethered to a cursed dagger." He grinned, and it should have looked so out of place amidst the violence and the screams of pained goblins, but it didn't. She almost lost her hold on the axes altogether as he _winked_ at her before resuming his artful dance closer to her. She caught them, her skin tingling with so much more than just her magic.

Slowly she started pushing the floating picks toward the ring of goblins that surrounded her. Killian was leading his batch nearer, but he was tiring, she saw the sluggishness in movements that were once calculated grace. She needed to end this _now_.

"On three, okay?" she called.

"Are you going to answer my question or not, Swan?" He hissed as a smaller goblin managed to get through his defenses and slash across his thigh. Not too much blood, it wasn't too deep, but he was obviously hesitant to put full weight on that leg.

"Technically, you didn't ask a question..." She just wanted this to be _over_ , to return her father's sword, heal Killian's wounds, and take a long, hot bath and forget goblins and trolls and whatever else was coming next even existed.

"Emma Swan, will you marry me?" he asked again, grin just as wide as before.

"Fine!" she cried. "Yes! Now be ready on three, okay?"

He was about to say something when two of the vile creatures came _flying_ at him from somewhere high up.

"NOW!" she shouted.

With a flick of her fingers, she sent the axes spinning faster and faster, a tornado of wood and metal as she _launched_ herself at Killian, tackling him to the ground and burying her face in his chest. The axes spun dizzyingly, ripping through the line of goblins until not a single one was left save the puddles of their melted bodies, their dying screams echoing disturbingly in her mind.

She lifted her head finally, just as the last of the dwarf picks fell to the gravel. She was sprawled half across his body, both of them gasping for air. He groaned softly, his eyes scrunched in pain.

"Emma, love," he grunted, "you've crunched my, um…"

"Sorry," she muttered, shifting herself over slightly.

"Thanks."

They lay there for a few moments more, just catching their breath. Finally, he raised his head and smiled.

"You said yes," he grinned.

She smiled back. "Yeah, I did," she said. "Are you surprised?"

He shook his head slightly. "You've always been interested in me, I knew it was only a matter of time before you fell for my dashin- ow!" He winced as she thumped his chest lightly, but he was still smiling, broader than before, and she felt her own lips stretch to copy his.

"Don't ruin the moment, Killian," she said.

"Emma Swan, you've already made me the happiest man alive," he said seriously. "Even dead, I was happier than I had been for centuries, just because I got to know you. Will you make me impossibly happier still and agree to spend the rest of your life with me?"

She laughed. "I already said yes!"

At that, he lunged forward, capturing her mouth with his in a breathless kiss, his lips gracefully dancing along her own in a manner so similar to the way he'd fought just minutes before - effortless and elegant. She leaned forward, reaching a hand up to pull his head closer, his skin hot and sweaty under her palm but she didn't care. She broke off the kiss with a laugh.

"What is it, love?"

"Nothing," she grinned, brushing the stray locks of his sweat-dampened hair from his face. "Just wondering what kind of monsters are going to attack on our wedding day."

He smiled. "We do have quite the track record for creating truly momentous occasions. I hope it's something memorable."

She thumped his chest again. "You're impossible."

"And you're going to marry me anyway."

She bent down and kissed him again.

"You get to tell my parents," she grinned into his lips.

"Aye, love," he smiled. "As long as you keep your father's sword long enough to protect me."

"As you wish."


End file.
